Marui

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For the Japanese airsoft gun manufacturer, see Tokyo Marui.

Marui Co., Ltd. (株式会社丸井, Kabushiki-gaisha Marui^?) (TYO: 8252) is a Japanese retail company which operates a chain of department stores in Tokyo. They are best known for their women's fashion and accessories.

In 2003–4 the company generated US$2.75 billion in revenues. Its president is Tadao Aoi.

[edit] Name and logo

Marui department store logo.

The company's name (丸井) is a combination of the name of its predecessor's parent company "Maru-ni" (丸二) and the name of its president "Ao-i" (青井). The name of the department store is customarily written in Japanese as "マルイ", in katakana lettering.

The department store's famously ambiguous present-day logo is a symbol resembling "○I○I", and read "marui". The Japanese symbol "○" (not to be confused with the Roman alphabet "O" or "o") is read "maru", meaning "circle" or "zero". The symbol "I" ostensibly represents the numeral "1", which can be read "i" in Japanese (note that the Roman alphabet letter "I" is also the Romanized representation of the Japanese syllable "い", a third visual pun).

Despite being read as numerals, the symbol is written "OIOI" in Roman alphabet letters on the company's website, though the address of the website itself is "www.0101.co.jp". The "○I" in the logo is repeated, partly for aesthetics and also as an inference to the "0101" ending of the phone number all Marui department stores. ^[1]

[edit] MARUIONE.JP

In December 2007, Marui co., Ltd launched an international shopping and information website, maruione.jp. The site operates in Japanese, English and French. The shopping site offers Japanese street fashion and traditional goods while their LiveJ information site provides information on fashion, culture and visual kei music.